Vulpes Vulpes

Introduction

"Dinner time!" my mom shouted from inside the kitchen. I wasn't really hungry, but I obeyed nonetheless and went into the dining hall.

"What is it this time?" I asked her, anxiously expecting something halfway decent.

"Rabbit," she answered before regurgitating a slimy carcass onto the floor.

I looked down at the shredded meal for a moment and said, "Well, it's better than the bugs we had last night," before swallowing a big portion of meat without chewing.

My father began nomming away at a leg and cautioned me, "Easy, boy. You don't want to choke to death like ol' Harry did down by the river."

"Don't bring up that poor soul during dinner," my mother said scoldingly under her breath. My dad apologized, and Mom continued, "Now you boys finish up there, and I think I have a treat for you later on that I found in the old shed." She briskly left the room and headed out the house, and as she was still within earshot she shouted, "And save some for Rory!"

Not a second later Rory entered the room, scratching his hairy stomach. "What? I heard my name." He had a drowsy look in his eyes, probably from sleeping - he tends to do that a lot - until he spotted the mangled animal on the dining room floor. "Oh, man, rabbit! My favorite!" He loped over and stuffed his face, hardly taking time to breath between swallows. "So where's Mom?" he questioned after a big gulp.

"She said she was getting us some kind of treat she found in the shed," I explained.

Rory's face changed from delight to worry. "But that crazy farmer lives close by, right? I've heard stories that no one returns after venturing into that territory." He was obviously referring to an incident that we had experienced in the past, but Dad didn't notice.

"Mom made it back alright," I said nonchalantly. "And there's no farmer there anyway."

My brother seemed overly stressed for such a small matter, plus he could see through my lie: we both knew about the farmer. "I don't know," he said, "I don't like it. I'll go check to see if she needs help or anything." Before I could argue against him he was gone. My father and I didn't know what to do, but in the end we decided to wait it out until they returned home.

"They'll be okay," my dad assured. "Your mother is strong enough to take care of herself, and your brother is quick; he can make it out of any situation, don't you worry." He didn't know the half of it, though, but there was no longer anything we could do about it.

My tail was twitching erratically and uncontrollably, which it does when I'm nervous. I couldn't eat any more, so I headed to my room and sat down, my head resting sorrowfully on my black paws. For hours I sat there waiting for my family to come back safely. It was well into the night that I eventually fell asleep, and I dreamed a terrible dream, a dream of my mom and brother getting captured by the crazy old farmer, and of all the horrible things he might do to them. I remembered what happened there before, when I was young, but I didn't want to believe it was real.